I know, I know. The idea that Attorney General Eric Holder, that paragon of the Rule of Law, might have lied to the House Oversight Committee when he claimed he had heard of Operation Fast and Furious “only a few weeks” before his testimony last May is hard to accept. Inconceivable, in fact.

Also among the documents are Justice Department emails involving a former top aide to Attorney General Eric Holder. The emails show that then-deputy chief of staff Monty Wilkinson was notified by then-U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke the day after [Border Patrol Agent Brian] Terry was slain that guns found at the murder scene were connected to an investigation that Burke and Wilkinson had planned to discuss. The emails did not identify the investigation, but it was Operation Fast and Furious.

(Emphases added)

Keep this in mind: Wilkinson was Holder’s deputy chief of staff and, while the name “Fast and Furious” wasn’t used, it’s not credible that he didn’t know that was the investigation Burke was referring to. The mention in the email indicates a reference to an earlier conversation or conversations.

What’s even more unbelievable is that Wilkinson, having received news of the death of a federal agent by criminals using weapons they obtained as part of this “investigation” wouldn’t tell his boss, the chief of staff, and that neither of them would tell their “boss of bosses.”

Attorney General Eric Holder.

So, to ask of Mr. Holder the famous question from Watergate — What did he know and when did he know it? — we now have a pretty good idea.

He likely knew everything and he knew it at the latest the day after Brian Terry was murdered.

Months before he claimed in his testimony.

So either the Attorney General of the United States either lied under oath to the committee, or his memory is so bad regarding important DoJ events that he is incompetent to serve in his office.

Regardless (and my bet is on “liar”), Eric Holder is unfit to be US Attorney General and must go.

Remember, after documents came out showing that Attorney General Eric Holder had been informed of details regarding Operation Fast and Furious (aka “gunwalker,” aka “felony stupid“) long before he claimed to have heard of the operation, the Justice Department tried to hem and haw by claiming that he knew the name, but not much else.

In statements this week to Fox News and CBS, officials at Justice claimed Holder misunderstood Issa’s questions during the May 3 hearing.

But Chaffetz told TheDC that video of the hearing clearlly shows him restating Holder’s testimony for the record. “You said it was in just the last few weeks that you had heard of this [Operation Fast and Furious], right?” Chaffetz asked Holder.

Holder didn’t object to Chaffetz’s characterization of his testimony even though, Chaffetz now says, he had ample opportunity to clarify the record.

“My impression was [that] he was indifferent, and leading us to believe he knew nothing about the operation,” Chaffetz told TheDC. “But it seems the more we’ve learned, maybe that wasn’t the case.”

Though Chaffetz wouldn’t definitively say whether or not he believes Holder committed perjury, he did say the responses he has received from the Attorney General and his staff are troubling.

“I was really surprised to hear the [DOJ] spokesperson say that the Attorney General misunderstood the question,” Chaffetz said. “I restated what the Attorney General had said and he didn’t refute it. He had an opportunity to clarify and he obviously didn’t. So, for the spokesperson to say the Attorney General misunderstood the question doesn’t hold any water.”

Meanwhile, more of the MSM is starting to cover the scandal. Now it’s at CNN, where Anderson Cooper interviewed Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and seemed doubtful, to put it nicely, of Holder’s claim to have misunderstood. Visit Hot Air for the video. Apparently the administration is falling back on the “Bush did it too!” excuse, as Cooper references a BATF operation called “Wide Receiver.” Ed correctly notes, though, that a lot of questions have to be answered about Wide Receiver before we can let them get away with that claim:

Wide Receiver apparently allowed a small number of weapons to get into the hands of gun traffickers — but did any of those cross the border? If so, did the Bush administration coordinate that effort with the Mexican government? The issue here [i.e., regarding Operation Fast and Furious. –Phineas] isn’t the idea of a sting operation, but the fact that the Department of Justice knowingly allowed weapons to flow over the border and get into the hands of drug cartels.

Issa said he is willing to investigate Wide Receiver, too. Unlike the administration, our side has some integrity left.

Let’s get something straight: this isn’t just about Eric Holder, even though he richly deserves to be fired and remembered in infamy. Fast and Furious involved multiple agencies (minimally the BATF, DoJ, the Phoenix US Attorney’s Office, and the FBI) at all levels from bottom to top. Federal agents have been killed by “walked” guns, as have over 200 Mexican soldiers, federal agents, and civilians. There are strong indications of evidence tampering and witness tampering. There is evidence that staff within the White House itself knew, though is it an open question as to just what they knew and how high the knowledge went.

The point, though, is that these are all agencies and departments of the Executive Branch, which cannot with credibility investigate itself in such a far-reaching scandal.

It is time for a special prosecutor and it is time to make people answer under oath to a grand jury.